"When the Emperor Was Divine" - Quotation Collection - The Girl

[Robin Nourie]

"The door to the girl's room was closed. Above the doorknob was a note that had not been there the day before. It said DO NOT DISTURB. The woman did not open the door." (7)

This is our first encounter with the character called only "the girl" throughout the novel.  It is the first sign that her way of dealing with the internment will be to withdraw from the people who love her and to try to handle the hardships of internment on her own.

[Tunde Sogo]

"As the soldier made his way down the aisle calling out, 'Shades down, shades down,' in his deep, melodic bass, she chimed in with him softly under her breath."
(28)

"The girl narrowed her eyes for a moments and thought. 'Trampled,' she said."
(32)

"I asked him to bring me a bottle of perfume but he forgot. He brought me this scarf instead. It's very plain, isn't it?"
(33)

"She didn't look like herself when she did that. She looked like her mother, only not as mysterious."
(34)

"The girl did not know what it meant when a man touched his hat. Maybe it meant the same thing as a nod, or a hello. It meant that you had been seen. Or maybe it meant nothing at all."
(38)

"The man kicked the truck over and over again as steam rose up from under the hood. 'That's right, just kick and kick,' said the girl."
(41)

"The boy began to cough and the girl untied her scarf and shoved it into his hand and told him to hold it over his nose and mouth."
(48)

"Whenever she went out she covered her head with a wide-brimmed Panama hat so her face would not get too dark from the sun."
(58)

[peter Bixler]

Tell Me the Truth..
You Were Prettier last year.
I didn't wear this scarf last year P(38)


She said any day now she'd be bleeding. "It'll be red" she said. P. 81


The horse meat
What about it where do they get it
from horses
What kind
The dead kind P.88

Your A Good Jumper
Im awful i dont even deserve to hold the rope.  P.97

[Moriya Dichter]

"'And I,' said the girl, 'am the Queen of Spain.' 

'In your dreams,' said the boy.

'In my dreams,' said the girl, 'I'm the King'"

(75)

"His sister left the barracks early in the morning and did not return until long after dark. She was always in a rush now. Her cheeks were flushed from the cold. 'Where are you going?' 'Out.' She are all her meals with her friends. Never with the boy or his mother. She smoked cigarettes. He could smell them in her hair. One day he saw her standing in line at the mess hall in her Panama hat ad she hardly seemed to recognize him." (92)

[Samantha Bruttomesso-Clarke]

"She simply concentrated on seeing the pincone and the drawing had drawn itself" (42)

"Its too bright" (47)

"She was ten years old and she knew what she liked" (13)

"She tossed the ribbon to the floor" (32)

"papas gone" (50)

"She wrote letters to her friends on the other side of the fence, telling them all she was having a good time.  Wish you were here.  Hope to hear from you soon" (54)

[pbi...@gfsnet.org]

Thats a nice scarf
My father gave it to me its too plain

Do i have to
only if you want to
tell  me that i have to.    16

[Tunde Sogo]

"His sister had long skinny legs and thick black hair and wore a gold French watch that had once belonged to their father."
(57)

"Her watch had said six o'clock for weeks. She had stopped winding it the day they had stepped of the train."
(65)

"'Right about now,' she said, " I bet they're having a good time."
(66)

"'They let me turn the handle,' she said, 'but they wouldn't let me jump.'"
(70)

"I won a nickel at bingo tonight. Tomorrow we'll go to the canteen and buy you a Coca-Cola"
(72)

[Tunde Sogo]

"Do you know what bother me most? I can't remember his face sometimes."
(72)

"'In my dreams,' said the girl, ' I'm the King'"
(75)

"She said that Mrs. Kimura was really a man, and that a girl in Block 12 had been found lying naked with a guard in the back of a truck. She said that all the real stuff happened at night."
(81)

[Tunde Sogo]

"'We'll dig him up in the spring,' she said. 'We'll resurrect him.'"
(82)

"'I'm digging a hole to China,' she said."
(82)

"'Try bullets,' said the girl."
(87)

"The girl stood in front of the cracked mirror, staring at the red dot on her chin. She touched it again and again."
(88)

[Moriya Dichter]

"In the mourning she woke burning with fever. Their mother brought her a tin cup filled with water and told her to drink but the girl refused. She said she wasn't thirsty. 'Nothing's passing though these lips,' she said. She pulled back the blanket and began to pick at a scab on her knee." (98)

"Now when the girl undressed-always, the quick flick of the wrists and then the criss-crossing arms and the yellow dress billowing up over her head like a parachute in reverse-she asked him to turn away." (81)